While visiting the sweltry set of Red this month, /Film had the pleasure of hanging and chatting a bit with John Malkovich. The iconic actor’s thoughts on the 2010 Warren Ellis comic book adaptation remain under wraps, but Malkovich also took a sec to extend on his rumored involvement in Sam Raimi‘s (thankfully?) never-to-be Spider-Man 4. In what seemed to be the first official confirmation straight from the actor—mark your journals—Malkovich divulged he was to battle Tobey Macguire as the winged super-villain The Vulture. After the jump are his quotes on the once upon a role. (Sure, it’s the geek equivalent of a GF pondering last night’s crazy dream about a labyrinthian mall…but better.)

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Spider-Man 4 has been beset by rumor and delay of late, most of which seems to center around the villain for the piece. Director Sam Raimi reportedly hated the last script draft, and wants to hinge the film on classic bad guy the Vulture. Sony has been said to want any other character as the antagonist.

And in the midst of all this, John Malkovich was reportedly cast, or at least eyed for the Vulture. Now he’s told an Italian sports show (of all things) that he’s waiting for a new draft of the script, which would seem to suggest that he is on board in some capacity. At least for now. Read More »

This is where those Black Cat stories from a few weeks back get really interesting. It’s also where some purists start throwing little fits.

New reports have John Malkovich and Anne Hathaway in the frame for roles in the new Spider-Man picture as father and daughter villains. Malkovich would be playing The Vulture, and Hathaway would be playing The Vulturess.

The who…? You might be surprised, if not outright appalled, when you read just who she is…

Sadly, this isn’t about a sequel to the 2002 film Secretary. John Malkovich is joining Secretariat, the film directed by Braveheart writer Randall Wallace, about three people whose lives intersected, thanks to the champion horse Secretariat. (One of a few horses to win the Triple Crown of the Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes and Preakness Stakes.) If Seabiscuit didn’t have the horseracing moxie you wanted, check out more details on this champ, after the break. Read More »

John Malkovich is one of those actors who really seems hard to pin down. He can take a strange role and make it his own, a la Teddy KGB in Rounders, or he can take the role of a villain and make it uber-creepy, like he did in In The Line of Fire. Or, he can also play a part where he’s playing himself, and a version of himself piloted by someone else, and make fun of himself and his image in the process as in Being John Malkovich. Besides all this, he definitely seems like someone that you don’t want to piss off.

Malkovich is defined both by his acting ability, and the strange choice of roles he’s taken over the years. He’s not someone you’d ever see as the leading man, but what he brings to the table in his supporting roles and antagonistic ways more than make up for that. He’s gone from art film staple to period piece villain to comedic foil and every other role in between, and he’s now joining the ranks of the comic book realm with a part in Jonah Hex, where he’ll be squaring off against Josh Brolin. You can never quite tell what he’ll be doing next, and the only cinematic counterpart I can even think of him would be Christopher Walken (although Walken isn’t quite as choosy in his roles). Maybe we’ll see them in a father / son project some day.

While I dream about that, head down below to check out today’s GeekBomb about John Malkovich. After all, he’s premiering in this weekend’s wonderfully quirky movie The Great Buck Howard.

Variety have reported the casting of John Malkovich in Jimmy Hayward’s Jonah Hex. I’ve believed this was inevitable for some time now, and if you keep reading, I’ll show you why.

Malkovich will be playing Quentin Turnbull, probably the key recurring villain from the comics. According to the series’ storyline, Turbnull’s son Jeb was Jonah Hex’s best friend in the Confederate army but after Jeb was killed by Union soldiers who framed Hex as a turncoat, Turnbull senior swore vengeance and they became bitter enemies. I expect all of these events will figure in the film somehow – so we can probably also expect Jeb Turnbull casting at some point soon.

After a series of schlocky small films, some of which went straight-to-DVD, it looks like writer/director Sean McGinly is ready for the big time. McGinly’s The Great Buck Howard debuted almost a year ago at Sundance 2008 and got fairly positive reviews (see Peter’s mini-review of the film here and some more reviews here). The film carries some pretty impressive star power, with John Malkovich playing Buck Howard, a mentalist who is just on this side of washed up, and Colin Hanks as Troy Gable, Howard’s road manager. Tom Hanks will play Gable’s father, a role that he’s spent 31 years preparing for.

With the movie finally gearing up for release, Magnolia has released a new trailer for the film, courtesy of Yahoo!. The trailer seems to suffer from “Show too much of the movie” syndrome, but it does have John Malkovich appearing to have a blast in his role, which is always fun to watch. As for Hanks, I’m still recovering from his performance in Orange County, so I remain unconvinced that he has as much skill as the elder Hanks, but maybe this film will prove me wrong? Hit the jump for the trailer.Read More »

In 1928, Christine Collins of Los Angeles reported her nine-year old son, Walter, as missing. In the midst of charges of corruption and negative publicity, the Los Angeles police department was desperate for a positive P.R. boost from solving the case. After much searching, they finally found a boy in DeKalb, IL claiming to be Walter, and returned him to his mother. But it wasn’t really him. This immutable fact galvanized Collins on a quest to find the truth and a battle against authorities that threatened to tear her life apart.

Decades later, Ms. Collins’ story was discovered and turned into a screenplay by screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski. The trailer for Changeling, directed by Clint Eastwood, is now here and it shows a great deal of promise. Despite recent films like Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Tomb Raider, and Wanted, I’ve always believed that Jolie has enormous amounts of legitimate acting talent that just needs an appropriate film outlet to be adequately displayed. Her recent lauded performance in A Mighty Heart was apparently demonstrative of this, and Changeling looks to continue the trend. Changeling is scheduled for limited release in the U.S. on October 24, 2008. What do you guys think of the trailer?

Focus Features have released an international teaser trailer for The Coen Brothers’ Burn After Reading on MSN. This is a perfect example of a fast cut, no nonsense teaser trailer which gets it right. And you have to love Brad Pitt’s “Appearances can be Deceptive” line. Classic. And why isn’t JK Simmons getting a topline credit? He’s all over the trailers. Tell me what you think in the comments below!